Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jun 2004 Source: Ogdensburg Journal/Advance News (NY) Copyright: 2004 Johnson Newspaper Corp. Contact: http://www.ogd.com/letter.htm Address: P.O. box 409 Ogdensburg NY 13669 Website: http://www.ogd.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/689 Note: Best option for printed LTEs, postal mail, signed w/phone# Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws) SENATE SHOULD STAND TOUGH We're pleased that the New York State Senate refused to bow to pressure from the pro-drug use lobby that wanted to gut the state's anti-drug trafficking laws. Year after year, we listen to the whining of the recreational drug use lobby that claims New York State's laws are just too harsh. We think they currently send a strong message to people who sell drugs for a living that if they persist in making money by selling poisons to our children, sooner or later they'll pay a stiff price for their actions. Critics of the state's drug laws would like everyone to think that the state 's prisons are filled with people who were arrested for possession of minor quantities of drugs. You hear them constantly claiming that first time offenders are being shipped off to prison for life for small sales. Yet anyone who watches the North Country's criminal justice system each week soon notices that the vast majority of people busted for selling drugs are not sent to prison. Most don't even end up in state prison. The harsh penalties in the current statutes tend to convince most drug dealers to cooperate with law enforcement to help police catch bigger fish. It also convinces most dealers to plead to lesser charges and to agree to enroll in in-patient treatment programs to rid themselves of their addictions. In the vast majority of cases where drug dealers are sentenced to state prison, they don't actually go to a regular state prison. They go to the Willard Drug Treatment or shock incarceration programs, and they are back on the street in a few months. Prosecutors argue that their focus is on getting drug abusers into treatment because jail time by itself does not change the underlying problem. By allowing them to plead to lesser offenses, they can be monitored on probation or parole for longer periods, allowing the criminal justice system to monitor their behavior for several years. While the pro-drug use lobby likes to argue that drug abuse is more of a public health problem that should handled with treatment instead of as a criminal justice issue, the reality is that the current drug statutes serve as a powerful incentive to drug dealers to enroll in in-patient treatment programs to shake their addictions. State legislators should be careful about weakening the laws that would take away the incentive for drug abusers to get clean. The state senate offered reasonable compromises, but the pro-drug use lobby seems to want to encourage even more drug use. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin